30 junho, 2010

R.I.P. RAMMELLZEE aka The Crazy Genius

Rest In Power Rammellzee, 1960-2010. Shotgun in one hand, mic in the other – there will never be another.

“I DON’T LIKE MUSIC. I JUST DO IT BECAUSE IT’S ANOTHER SCULPTURE TO ME. SOLID ROCK, I BREAK THINGS OFF, THE SOUND VIBRATES THE SCULPTURE & THEREFORE, I STAND THERE IN THE DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF ALPHAS BET.Rammellzee

"Someone told me, I don’t know if it’s true, that Rammellzee is the originator of the use of the word “word”, in hip hop slang. That he started that way back, and would answer people by just saying “word.” And that that spread from Rammellzee, I don’t know if that’s true or myth, but if you have to imagine an origin, the idea of reducing everything to the word “word” is so Rammellzee-like."Jim Jarmusch

“That was a style that Rammellzee had used first. [aka the ‘Gangsta Duck’ style] His style was more effect-driven, while I just held my nose and went “Yo MCs!” But I’d taken the idea of changing my voice from Rammellzee. He’s still underrated, he was the personal rapper for Rock Steady Crew back in the day. [rhymes “Beat Bop” pretty much in its entirety] But that’s where I derived that style that later Muggs had B-Real ask me if B could use, and that’s what turned into the style that B-Real made famous in Cypress Hill. We used to study Cold Crush Brothers, Sugarhill Gang, Funky Four Plus One, and they were structured. But Rammellzee, it was like one long rap! That’s where we got that womp-womp-womp for “River Cubano” and where Muggs got that “Cy-cypress hill…” from the record, it was all Rammellzee, that’s how much of an impact his work had on us.” - Mellow Man Ace

"I hung out with Rammell only once, in the mid-nineties. He drank coffee with Kahlua and told me the FBI had bugged his house. He said he had already “done” the internet so why would he look at “the new version”?Mellow Man Ace - “Rhyme Fighter” (Capitol, 1989)

“He was all dressed up in his white leather trench coat with his bug ski goggles on and leaning against a two-tone brown and tan stretch limousine. He opened the door for me. I said, ‘Where are we going?’ He said, in his best sinister Donald Duck voice, ‘Wherever you want to go as long as I can buy you a pair of shoes there. That’s where we are going my little chicakdee ha ha ha ha."Suzanne Malouk